//------------------------------// // Best Served Cold // Story: My Little Engineer // by Soren Mercer //------------------------------// Date: 02/05/2406 13:04 “Multiple contusions, eight fractured ribs, right hind leg missing at the knee, possible collapsed lung, left wing primary elastic tendon cut, fractured left foreleg, critical blood loss.” The doctors all quickly examined the broken body of Rainbow Dash as she was airlifted onto the newly constructed NLR New Moon, the helicarrier that I had outfitted for mining but had left the armaments on. Those armaments proved invaluable in shredding the remains of the approaching army, bombing those on the ground with air-to-surface missiles while the railgun turrets took out everything in the sky. Even the larger bodies of the wyverns proved easy to dispatch when you push a couple of rockets down their throats. Soarin had found the Wyvern’s distress beacon as soon as we fired up the New Moon in the shipyard and immediately began plotting a course to retrieve the ship and it’s crew. I was forced to override the destruction sequence with less than comfortable seconds to go via antenna connection, more than thankful that the antennas had actually survived the crash of the ship. A quick life-sign scan showed the rapidly declining sign of Rainbow Dash holed up in what remained of the cargo/passenger area and no others. While a squad of Wonderbolts collected Rainbow Dash, Spitfire and Soarin found the body of Fleetfoot and almost immediately broke down to tears.  Luna, having accompanied me on the ship, teleported to Canterlot to collect a team of doctors while Dash was brought on board and put into emergency recovery upon arrival. I had instructed the team to put Dash in one of the onboard auto-docs, explaining to them that she’d be well cared for and almost guaranteed to survive the operation if her will was strong enough. Now, stood on the command deck of the New Moon, surrounded by the crew of Wonderbolts who all jumped at the chance to pilot the massive flying structure on her completion, I turned to Luna who’d wrapped her arms over her armoured chest. Her armour was of the same make as the Dark Knight armour from our shared dream and it fit just as well. I had to spend a good couple minutes with Luna, calming her down and preventing her from flying out on her own power to fight the enemy forces alone. After telling her that she’d likely get shot down by friendly fire, she reluctantly turned to our shared captain’s quarters to sulk before moving to where Dash was in surgery. “Captain, incoming enemies from behind! More Wyverns, manticores and even a few minotaurs have hitched rides!” a pony announced from my left warned from a console. “Light those bastards up! How about a bit of sweet, dick-kicking revenge for the death of Fleetfoot and the severe injury of Rainbow Dash?” I shouted back with a grin as yells and cheers of agreement met me in response. “Bring the point defence to bear and open fire at will!” “Sir yes sir!” all six of my gunners shouted back, their eyes glued to their screens as the sound of heavy gunfire and missiles being launched filled the Deck. “Get us over the bulk of them and fire up the laser drills!” I ordered, earning similar ‘yes sirs’ from that team in Engineering. I had redesigned the ship for mining after all, stripping away the hydrogen thrusters and replacing them with nine laser drills, all temporarily without their turrets for the sake of combat use. Watching the cameras over looking the bottom of the ship, I smirked once a good portion of the ship’s mining lasers hovered over the enemy forces. “Sir, ready and very willing to light those bastards up!” a Wonderbolt announced, his hoof hanging mere inches away from the button that would fire up the lasers. “Do it. Send those shits to hell and use their bodies for fuel.” I let my head tilt forwards a bit, casting a slight shadow over my face from the lights above for just as long as it took for the nine laser drills to fire up and begin carving massive swaths of land and bodies from the land below. Doing so had the lights in the room flicker and the shadows over my face disappeared, banished permanently by the sunlight coming in from the large bay windows before me. The nine beams of pure energy cut deep into the ground, large crevices forming where the drills pierced the earth and cut through bodies left, right and centre. There were just enough of a gap between each drill that the creatures below were somewhat able to dodge and weave around, but they too fell when the turrets below opened fire. A quick look around and I could barely see a clear line of those who thought that this was perfectly acceptable revenge, while the others all looked more than hesitant to use the lasers to turn the bodies of the enemies into pure resources. “Sir!” A pegasus in yellow and blue reported, turning in her seat to address me. “Engineering reports that on top of the pure carbon and liquid Xenon we’re getting, we’re also mining out chunks of Magnesium, Silicon and trace amounts of Uranium!” “Cool, mark this location for those three resources then.” I commanded and turned back to the cameras of evaporating bodies below us. “Cut the mining lasers, just tear into them with the turrets!” “Yes sir!” one of the ponies who looked apprehensive about using this method of warfare called back and immediately killed power to the lasers. I could tell she was just waiting to do that. “Sir, I report that the enemy forces are in full retreat!” Soarin announced from my left and pulled the image of scattered forces running off in the general direction of where they’d come from. “Finish off the ones who stay back. Make sure they know we mean business!” I turned from my post behind the Pilot’s seat and aimed towards the back of the ship; towards Luna and Rainbow Dash. While the ship itself was a larger classed ship, it was still fairly small by my counts. Many of the ponies on board the ship had expressed their admiration and awe at the size of the thing, absolutely sure that this was the largest vessel they’d ever seen. Regardless of all that, though, it was still large enough that I easily got lost trying to make my way to medical. I knew I had found the place when I spotted Luna resting against the door, sitting on the floor with her arms around her knees. “Hey,” I announced my presence softly and took a seat next to Luna and pulled her into me. She willingly fell apart in my arms as soon as I had my arms wrapped around her. “How’re you doing?” “How-” Luna’s voice was raspy and coarse, suggesting heavy crying before I’d even shown up and unleashed the floodgates. “How do you think I'm doing? One of my best friends has been critically, if not mortally, wounded!” “And did I not give my word that she’d survive her injuries if she had the will to live?” I remarked calmly, trying my best to calm the woman in my arms. “Do you want to go in and check on her?” “How? She should still be in the machine, right?” Luna looked up at me with destroyed shadow and mascara, her eyes still watering. I took the initiative and wiped off her face with a hand for her. “Probably, but I can at least tell you what stage of the operation she’s in.” I replied then offered in return, still in efforts to comfort my girlfriend. After a minute of silence, interspersed by sniffling, Luna nodded and stood with assistance from me. Activating the door, Luna and I stepped into the room that could have passed for empty if it wasn’t for the large medical unit whirring away to tell that there was something inside. “Alright, now let’s find out how she’s doing.” I announced and stepped up to the control panel nearby and dug up the Auto-doc’s menu. Patient: Pony, Pegasus, Rainbow Dash Injuries: Multiple Contusions, Left lung punctured, nine broken ribs, right rear cannon missing from hock, left wing tendon snapped, blood pooling in right eye, critical blood loss, critical xenon loss. Operation Procedure Completion: 46% Injuries successfully repaired: Blood loss stabilized and replenished, right eye repaired, left lung regenerating, seven ribs reset, two regenerated, right hock stapled shut. Injuries remaining: Left wing tendon to be repaired, contusions to bandage, xenon levels reset. Alert: Missing leg cannot be regenerated, not enough raw materials available. Missing xenon cannot be replenished, insufficient knowledge to perform procedure. Patient has been revived three times, expect minimal to moderate degradation in memory/motor functions. “Well,” I began, placing my hands on either side of the console to stare at the read-outs. “Will she be okay?” Luna placed both hands on my shoulders, trying to read over them but couldn’t get a good enough view. “She’s died three times, been revived three times. The machine can’t regenerate her missing leg or return her xenon levels to normal. Other than that, I think she’ll be fine.” I reported with a smile, the report giving Luna reason to breath and release a large breath she’d been holding. “She may suffer from a bit of memory or motor function degradation after having died and been revived three times.” “What could she lose?” Luna’s gaze drifted from me to the console, now resting her head on my shoulder before spinning around me to hold onto me entirely. “At best, the last few hours of her memory. Worse case depending on what parts of her brain were affected, she may suffer total amnesia. Motor functions could be anything so I can’t really answer that.” I sighed back and wrapped my arms around my woman like she was wrapped around me. “Captain, sir,” Spitfire’s voice came in over the speakers and was translated instantly. “We’re receiving some kind of radio signal. The computer has marked it red.” “Can anyone read the tag?” I called back, raising my head from the princess’s shoulder to speak clearly. “No sir, all we know it that it’s a hostile signal.” Spitfire replied before going suspiciously silent despite the comms link remaining open. “Sir, may I ask, how’s Crash doing?” “She’ll live.” I announced short and simply. The sound of many ponies all sighing in relief came over the speakers before the line went dead. “Come on, let’s get back to the bridge and find out what the hostile signal is.” “Okay,” Luna agreed with a small nod and pulled away to wipe her tears away with the back of her hand. “Let’s go.” ~~~ “Well, this is quite fortuitous…” I smirked and stared out at the holographic HUD of the bridge before me, Luna at my side. Before us the new signal, in red, hovered over a section of the ground beneath us, with its distance marker showing how far out from us it was. According to Luna, the marker should originate just from beyond the border of Equestria. “Sir, what does it say?” Soarin inquired, looking over the seat of his navigation console. “GNA - Headquarters.” I read back, making Luna’s eyebrows raise at the proclamation. “The Griffic National Army headquarters?” she repeated, giving me details on just who the GNA was. “That should be where our attackers came from!” “Then we know where to hit.” I grinned back maliciously before placing a hand on Spitfire’s seat. “But we first need to get to Ponyville.” “Why? They’re right there, we know where we are, we can hit them!” Luna scowled back, first at the radio signal, then at me as she stuck a hand out to gesture to the marker. “Shouldn’t Rainbow’s friends be made aware of her status and be allowed to visit her before we go into heavy battle?” “The Captain does have a point, your highness.” Soarin sighed in reluctance but agreed with a nod. “Setting course for Ponyville.” “Fine. We’ll also want to go to Cloudsdale to tell Fleetfoot’s family of her death.” Luna conceded and dropped her head into a hand before turning to me. “If you need me, i’ll be in our quarters.” With a nod of the head from me, Princess Luna excused herself from the bridge while the ship began to aim back towards civilization for the time being. “Spitfire, if I may?” I requested, stepping up behind the pegasus who nodded and rolled out of the seat to let me in. Spitfire switched out for Soarin and the progression continued until some random pony left for engineering. Taking direct control of the ship, I fired up the two rear Hydrogen thrusters that I'd swapped in for simple thrust use over the ion thrusters that were useless in this environment. The sudden kick of the thrusters floored nearly everypony who was standing but were able to recover themselves and return to their duties. “Sir, time to reach Ponyville, six minutes.” Spitfire reported from behind me and to my left. “I suppose moving at two-hundred forty meters per second and still accelerating has that effect.” Soarin replied with a chuckle from behind and to my right. I agreed with a raised eyebrow and settled in for the short flight. ~~~ Four minutes later the NLR New Moon put all it’s thrust into slowing us down again as we hovered over Ponyville, casting a massive shadow over the centre of town which had ponies all raise their heads to the skies in confusion and in some, fear. While the Wonderbolts began preparations for Fleetfoot’s funeral, Luna and I moved back to medical to retrieve Dash who’d been completed about a minute ago. As I was confined to a suit, Luna lead the procession out of the airlocks and into the skies while helping me carry Rainbow’s sleeping body on a stretcher. Her leg, as the machine had told me, was still just a stump at the knee while her wings had been successfully repaired. She had numerous scars over her body and her fur had been shaved away in places to perform the operation, baring shockingly white skin underneath. Accompanied by the higher-ranked Wonderbolts, Luna and I met Twilight and friends below, all six of them crying heavily at seeing the stretcher between us. Landing, Sunset was the first to speak through a broken voice, “What happened to her? Is she alright?” “She and Fleetfoot engaged in battle with an approaching army bent on making room on the colony ship by killing Equestrians.” I began my report, broadcasting over my speakers while Luna translated for me. “They were overwhelmed and brought down and crashed, I don’t know the specifics exactly. Fleetfoot was killed in action and Rainbow was severely injured. We managed to rescue Rainbow Dash in time to save her from the ship’s reactor meltdown and put her immediately into automated surgery.” “Why did you have to make her go out and get hurt?” Pinkie’s hair was flat and dull, her eyes bubbling with emotion as she stared at me. “She was the best pilot available since I needed Soarin and Spitfire to pilot that.” I replied, pointing up at the ship behind us. “You need to know that Rainbow Dash is going to be fine, we even managed to repair her wing which had been clipped.” Fluttershy eep’d at the thought of being clipped, her wings remaining glued to the side of her body even more than they already were. The girl’s eyes roamed her heavily bandaged body and settled down on the lack of a rear leg. “What about her leg? Why can’t you fix that?” Rarity demanded while Applejack consoled her with a hug. “If we had her leg, we could have reattached it. The Auto-doc didn’t have the resources to regenerate her leg after fixing her punctured lung, damaged eye, broken ribs, blood loss, reviving her four times and regenerating the main tendon in her wing.” I explained, making Twilight’s jaw drop at the injury list. “You mean, she died four times on the table?” Sunset gawked before eyes all fell on Dash again. I nodded back and stepped back from the end of the stretcher to let the unicorns and Twilight lift Dash’s body as carefully as they could together. The three mares all aimed off towards Twilight’s castle while the other three followed behind. Pinkie stayed back for just a moment. “Thanks, for saving her. I don’t know what we would’ve done if we lost her.” she remarked before following after he friends with head hung low. “Next stop, Cloudsdale.” I announced and took off with my jetpack. Luna and the Wonderbolts followed behind me and reboarded the New Moon before aiming towards the coming funeral procession in our futures.